Talk:Couch, Missouri
I thought this is where Straha's shuttle craft was hidden after he defected. This was to prevent the Race from destroying it by bombing and to study it to reverse-engineer the technology. Einstein et. al. happened to be visiting when Yeager arrived to help Goddard in his work by translating Lizard POWs including the shuttle pilot. There wasn't any particular meeting going on, let alone an important one. Or am I wrong? ML4E (talk) 21:25, December 20, 2018 (UTC) :That's basically it. They just all happened to be there and thought they'd take a look at the thing. Also, is it Couch MO, or Couch, Arkansas? TR (talk) 21:37, December 20, 2018 (UTC) ::It is Couch, MO, although that is not immediately obvious, because the scene starts in Arkansas and they hop over the state line really quickly. Couch, MO is a real place which seems to be the most insignificant podunk town imaginable, which is apparently the point of having the secret meeting there. I really wish the Einstein-Ike-Mussolini subplot had been continued (maybe with Musso as the POV?), rather than lasting for a page before getting back to business as usual, and never mentioning what Musso did afterwards. Having Musso in a position so counterintuitive to OTL is what AH was created for! It foreshadowed TWTCE where everything important happened offstage and THW where everything among the USSR higher-ups happened offstage.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 22:01, December 20, 2018 (UTC) :::What meeting? From what I gather, Einstein and Mussolini were a couple of visiting VIPs escorted by Eisenhower but there wasn't any such meeting. Please describe it and who else was there. I don't think you can because I think you are jumping to conclusion that are not supported by the text. Reread TR's first sentence above. ML4E (talk) 22:06, December 20, 2018 (UTC) ::::Exactly. I remember it because it inspired the cover of UtB, the only book out of the eight whose cover depicts something that happens in the book. I wonder if HT invented the scene just to provide the illustrator with some fodder. If not I assume he just wanted to inject a little flavor into what probably would have wound up a dry stretch of prose otherwise. There's no need to imagine anything of substance was going on. Turtle Fan (talk) 23:10, December 20, 2018 (UTC) :::::"Mussolini visits the USA as a respected guest" is pretty substantial as AH goes, and would have been nice to follow up with a subplot, quite a change from the monotonous combat scenes which drown most of HT's works.JonathanMarkoff (talk) 23:15, December 20, 2018 (UTC) ::::::Don't you think that, if it were meant to have any impact on the story, we would have noticed some evidence of it, however indirect? It was a cameo meant to titillate. Just let it do that. Turtle Fan (talk) 03:01, December 21, 2018 (UTC) As I thought, no meeting, just a couple of visiting firemenWW: UtB, pg. 311. ML4E (talk) 23:06, December 27, 2018 (UTC)